Summary
The authors conducted a review of post release mortality studies on billfish caught in recreational fisheries. Despite relatively so few studies involving many variables, the authors were able to detect some trends: 1) High speed trolling with artificial lures or a lure/natural bait combination (usually with J hooks) result in low amounts of internal hooking, tissue trauma and post release mortality; and 2) slow troll fisheries using natural baits or lure/bait combinations and circle hooks result in reduced rates of internal hooking, tissue trauma and sometimes post-release mortality.